At this week's Worldwide Developers Conference, the winners of the 2011 Apple Design Awards were announced, representing some of the best software available for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

The official ceremony was held Tuesday evening, and developers were recognized for software that demonstrates exceptional quality in the areas of design, innovation and technical excellence. In addition to iPhone, iPad and Mac, awards were also given out in a "Student" category. A total of 12 titles were recognized.

While last year, Apple limited its awards to iOS titles without any inclusion of Macs, this year Mac applications were recognized once again. However, all software for the iPhone, iPad and Mac had a requirement of being available on the platforms' respective App Stores.

This year's iPhone winners were Golfscape GPS, Infinity Blade, and Cut the Rope, a game that was featured live onstage during Monday's WWDC keynote as the new iMessage application was demonstrated.

For iPad, djay, Osmos, and the interactive book from former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, Our Choice, took top honors. Mac winners were Anomaly Warzone Earth, Capo, and Pixelmator.

Finally, the Student category was represented solely by iOS offerings: Grades 2 for iPhone, and Pulse News and Pennant for iPad.

Infinity Blade from Chair Entertainment and Epic Games was named a top iPhone app

Last year, only 10 total applications were honored in the iOS-only awards, with winners ranging from "TabToolkit" to "Flight Control HD" to "Star Walk for iPad." Nominations for the annual awards are accepted through Apple's website by members of the company's developer programs.

Ironically, one of last year's winners, the Financial Times, just announced a new Web application designed to bypass Apple's officially sanctioned App Store. By offering its product in HTML5 through the Safari Web browser, the publication will be able to avoid paying Apple a 30 percent cut of revenue for subscriptions through the App Store.

I really like Osmos. The controls looked absolutely maddening in the videos, but Im glad I tried it. Theyre unusual but great, and I played half the game in one long sitting. That rarely happens to me.

From the article, I can't tell exactly what the award for Infinity Blade was, but for me that game is simply eye candy and nothing else. Sure it's out of this world eye candy and the best way to show off the graphics capability of the iPad, but for gameplay it's amazingly boring and repetitive. When the Epic Citadel demo came out was very excited for what Inifinity Blade could have been. But without any freedom of movement and just dodge and slash actions, the game leaves a lot on the table for me.

Cut the rope is a wonderful and original game. Well deserved award there.

If Apple does, isn't that a conflict of interest, since Al Gore won? Al Gore is on Apple's board, is he not?

I have not tried or seen Al Gore's interactive book, it's not my style and Gore is my political opposite. It may very well be a good app, but it still seems kind of fishy that he won. Out of the iPad apps that won, I do have Djay, and I'm liking that, I can see why that won.

If Apple does, isn't that a conflict of interest, since Al Gore won? Al Gore is on Apple's board, is he not?

I have not tried or seen Al Gore's interactive book, it's not my style and Gore is my political opposite. It may very well be a good app, but it still seems kind of fishy that he won. Out of the iPad apps that won, I do have Djay, and I'm liking that, I can see why that won.

Not familiar with the App but LOL at "political opposite".

When did ideas stop being judged on their own merit and start becoming part of "the republican agenda" or "the democrat agenda"?

When did ideas stop being judged on their own merit and start becoming part of "the republican agenda" or "the democrat agenda"?

I don't disagree with you. Apps should be judged on their own merit, regardless of their political content. That's why I wrote that even though I don't like Gore's politics, his app may very well be a well designed and good app. If I was reviewing Gore's interactive book and if I thought that it was a well done app, I might give it 4 or 5 stars, even if I thought the political content would warrant a rating of 1 or 0. The two issues are separate and should not be mixed up with each other.

If you go to the iTunes app store, look at some of the boneheaded comments about the Fox News app. It seems like a pretty well done app and many people are giving it good ratings, and then you get these ignorant little liberal fascists who pop up like little rats and give it bad ratings, just because they don't like Fox News.

Infinity Blade is perhaps the best game current on the App Store - it is a amazing piece of hardware.

I have infinity blade, i picked it up when it was $.99 i think. It looks great graphically speaking, but I can't really say that I've spent more than 5-10 minutes playing it. The game may be graphically advanced compared to other iPad games, but the game itself and the gameplay seems kind of simplistic.